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This ultimate peanut butter granola is made with just five simple ingredients! It is chunky, crunchy, and loaded with sweet, salty, and nutty flavors.
Crispy and crunchy peanut butter-flavored granola using wholesome ingredients- count me in!
Granola gets an unfair wrap for being a glorified sugar-laden cereal, but that is far from the truth. When made correctly, it can be a healthy, wholesome, and delicious breakfast the whole family will adore!
Table of Contents
Why this recipe works
- It is way cheaper when you make it at home. You don’t have to spend money on generic granola anymore (or any of those fancy ones, either!). Instead, make your gourmet-style granola at home at a fraction of the price!
- Scale it up! Like chocolate granola or protein granola, this granola stays at room temperature for a month. So, feel free to make it in bulk and enjoy a healthy breakfast daily!
- It’s diet friendly. Unless you’re allergic to peanuts, you can enjoy this delicious recipe. Whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, or a meat enthusiast, I promise you’ll enjoy it.
- Healthy and delicious. My favorite kind of food! With no added refined sugars or flour, fiber-rich oats, and healthy fats from peanut butter, peanut butter granola is a healthy addition to your diet.
Ingredients Needed
- Rolled oats. I prefer using rolled oats to make granola, but you can mix rolled and quick oats.
- Nuts. Nuts make up for a large portion of granola, and you can mix in your favorite nuts. I like to have a mix of chopped and whole nuts for various textures. You don’t need to toast them before use as you’ll bake the granola eventually.
- Salt. Trust me, you must add a generous salt pinch to your granola! It elevates the flavor of this cereal.
- Peanut butter. The World is divided over crunchy and smooth peanut butter. But the good news is that you can use either one to make this recipe.
Peanut butter substitute
Even though this is a ‘peanut butter’-esque recipe, you can swap it out for any nut or seed butter. These include almond butter, tahini, or sunflower seed butter.
- Maple syrup. My preferred liquid sweetener. It’s healthier than white or brown sugar and lends itself to a lovely flavor. Honey or agave nectar also works.
How to make peanut butter granola
- Mix the dry ingredients. Add oats, salt, and chopped nuts in a large bowl.
- Mix the wet ingredients. Heat maple syrup and peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl or a saucepan until it bubbles.
- Make the granola mix. Pour the wet mix into the dry oat mix and coat everything nicely.
- Bake the granola. Spread the wet granola mixture on a baking tray, and bake it in a preheated oven at 180°C/350°F until golden. Then, remove it from the oven, stir, and place it back in the oven until golden brown.
- Store until later use. Let it cool, break it into smaller chunks, and store it in an airtight container for later munching.
Flavor variations
- Add seeds. A vegetarian diet often lacks omega-3 fatty acids! Add a tablespoon or two of ground flax seeds to the granola mix to get your healthy fats. Add pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, or chia seeds for a crunch and bite.
- Make it chocolaty. Toss ½ a cup of chocolate chips or shavings with granola for a peanut butter-chocolate granola.
- Double down on the peanut flavor. If you like the peanut flavor, mix in salted and unsalted toasted peanuts with the granola mix.
- Add more flavors. While peanut butter remains dominant, you can experiment by adding spices like cinnamon or pumpkin spice mix, or vanilla extract.
- Add dried fruits. For fruity granola, stir through dried figs, cranberries, raisins, dates, and banana chips.
Storage instructions
To store. Good news, guys! Granola stays fresh at room temperature for a month when stored in an airtight container.
To freeze. Freeze the granola in ziplock bags for up to six months.
Recommended tools to make this recipe
- Mixing bowls. These sets of mixing bowls are a great addition to your kitchen.
- Baking sheet. To cook the granola evenly and completely.
- Spatula. Mixing the wet and dry ingredients becomes extremely easy with this spatula.
Recipe tips and tricks
- Adjust the sweetness. Depending on whether you are using sweet, salty, or unsweetened peanut butter, you’ll have to adjust the amount of added maple syrup.
- Use good-quality peanut butter. Make peanut butter at home or buy good-quality, natural peanut butter with only peanuts. You don’t want added flavors, sweeteners, and oil.
- Avoid overbaking the granola. While this recipe is pretty hands-off, you must watch your granola as it bakes! In your quest to get crispy granola, don’t burn it. Blackened and burnt granola pieces are just not fun!
- Cool down the granola. Don’t disturb the granola when you remove it from the oven. Let it cool to room temperature so the sugar recrystallizes with granola to form crunchy and chunky bits.
More cereal and granola recipes to try
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between granola and muesli?
While both recipes have oats as their primary ingredient and contain dried fruits and nuts, they differ in how they’re prepared. While muesli is uncooked, granola is baked with fat and sweet components.
Can I refrigerate granola?
I don’t recommend storing granola in the refrigerator. It becomes soggy and loses its crunch.
Can I revive soggy granola?
If your granola goes soft or soggy over time, toss it in the oven for a few minutes. It’ll be crispy and fresh.
Peanut Butter Granola
This ultimate peanut butter granola is made with just five simple ingredients! It is chunky, crunchy, and loaded with sweet, salty, and nutty flavors.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups rolled oats use gluten free for gluten free option
- 1 cup nuts
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 3/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup mix-ins of choice pretzels, nuts, seeds etc
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the rolled oats, salt and nuts.
- In a small saucepan or microwave-safe bowl, heat the peanut butter with the syrup until it just begins to bubble. Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture and combine until fully incorporated.
- Spread the granola mixture evenly on the lined sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until the edges start to go slightly golden. Remove the granola from the oven and give it a good mix. Place back in the oven for another 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Let the granola cool completely, before breaking it apart and adding your mix-ins of choice.
Nutrition
Serving: 1servingCalories: 203kcalCarbohydrates: 22gProtein: 6gFat: 11gSodium: 149mgPotassium: 199mgFiber: 4gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 3IUVitamin C: 0.1mgCalcium: 26mgIron: 2mgNET CARBS: 18g
Tried this recipe?Give us a shout at @thebigmansworld or tag #thebigmansworld!
You certainly had me at Dark Chocolate but the addition of pretzels (sweet-salty and yum!) is genius!
I love making granola and am seriously intrigued not only by the sweet and salty but by the use of the nut butter with the honey – going to try this for my next batch!
Thanks so much, Beth! Definitely a good option on not using oil or butter 🙂
Arman,
It’s 5 degrees out (that’s F, so -15 to you), I’m out of milk AND cream for my tea, and my car is in the shop because the spouse feels that working brakes are important. He’s cuddly that way. There’s a grocery store a mile away from home, and if it was even 25 degrees out I’d be all over walking down to pick up a gallon for the kids and cream for my beloved tea.
However, it’s just too damn cold for that. I was thinking I’d chow on a piece of PB toast, but you’re reminding me I’ve got a bit of granola left in a jar and Meghan’s reminding me I’ve got yogurt in the fridge.
Clearly, I will not starve.
I think this would be amazing with those PB-filled pretzel pillows from Trader Joes thrown into the mix.
Thanks!
THAT, my friend, is genius. Why? I bought a bag of THOSE EXACT ONES FROM TJ’s when I was in America! I also bought the flax salted peanut butter but that has sadly run out.
Arman,
I’m delighted to learn that your time in America included a trip to TJ’s. Sure, we’ve got some great museums and natural wonders, but so do you Down Under. However, we have TJs . . . and now you know what the fuss is about!
haha yup – a handful of granola cures all the hangry feelings!
I knew I liked you.
I would totally eat this for breakfast. or dinner. or both. with ice cream.
You are NOT allowed to eat it with ice cream. Unless you share.
Peckish and twat in one post? Priceless.
If you could just ship me a box of this that would be great. Actually, seriously, you should start a mail or service or something. You and Davida. You’re both welcome for that fabulous business plan.
Yum! The saltiness from the pretzels must make this granola amazing! Thanks for linking up to #RECIPEFRIDAY 🙂
I could go for a few handfuls of this right now!!!! YUM!
More like bowl fulls 😉
Besides the fact that even a small spoonful of this would send me straight to the ER, I’m loving it! You know I live for sweet ‘n’ salty, and the combo of oats, nut butter, and honey is the love of my life. I canNOT be trusted around granola, though — I mean, how many times have I complained to you about giving myself a stomach ache by eating too much of it? Story of my life…
YES. Let’s just swap the PB for the AB and you’d be in spoons heaven. and i blame you for the 4 dinner servings of it.
Chocolate covered pretzels are my absolute favorite. I loveee this. I’ve been a salt fanatic lately (blame all the running). I need to go get pretzels to make this ASAP!!
YES. Get white chocolate ones too, it would be like whoring out chocolate!
I’m so jealous, granola for dinner sounds way too awesome! Pretty sure that’s they way I’d eat if I lived alone and had no more home cooked meals to eat. I haven’t had granola in a very long time because I literally grabbed a handful of it every time I passed the bag of granola. The store bought kind tasted pretty good, but probably wasn’t to healthy so I had to refrain from buying it. This looks super duper good! I save tons of your recipes, particularly the dessert ones, but still haven’t gotten around to making any of them. I actually printed out one of your recipes and bought all the ingredients for it at the supermarket, that was at the beginning of summer break, but still haven’t gotten around to making it. This summer I’ve been way too lazy in every way possible, but I definitely need to make a batch of this for study breaks once school starts, because I’ll be super hungry from all the hard core study. At least I hope, I really hope I turn things around this school year. 😛
Shawn! Hope everything is going well! Definitely try making granola…but turn the air conditioner on 😉